Coop's Corner: FridaySaturdaySunday

Sunday, February 19, 2017

FridaySaturdaySunday

I still save files on my PC's this way...no spaces, upper case to separate the words. There was just too much time with old DOS files for me to break the habit.

It should be announced that we're having incredible weather here in the Midwest. Our record breaking weather isn't for cold, snow or even rain but rather for warm, unseasonably February temperatures and this nicer outside weather is having an impact on everyone. The ice fisher people have all but given up though not quite (see below). The outdoor sports people have had a tough go of it this '16-'17 season and I truly do feel for them; these mild winters have a huge impact on our economy. Moods for the rest of us have lightened considerably and you can not only feel it, you can see it. I saw so many pairs of shorts protecting white legs yesterday that you have to know that we're Northerners. You can imagine what 60 degree weather brings out in us at this time of year and we're 'ta home, didn't even have to fly to a tropical beach.

Friday Morning

I stepped outside and right over my head, heard their wonderful trumpeting.....Even though potential blizzard conditions are forecast for next weekend, I'm hoping that these birds have the inside scoop on how March might lamb-like roll in.

Saturday

Up early and off to Minneapolis for coffee. I took the camera specifically for getting a couple of shots with our early season attendees but then never even pulled the camera from my belt. Overall attendance was down for such a nice day though percentage wise, bikes parked out in front were a nice proportion. Some of the other guys were probably at home "laying out", getting a head start on their tans.

Originally planning to be at home in the afternoon to get more work done on daughter's Tack Cabinet, plans were changed. A quick text to Erik with or rather hinting at my plans to meet him read a short and sweet "See you at 1:00". Our buddy Chad of Lone Wolf Expeditions was putting on a seminar about riding his Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail at 2Brothers Powersports down in Onalaska, Wisconsin. Great hosts of the event, cookies, beverages provided plus they gave away a very nice Klim jacket. I'm going to put a plug in for this dealership. A couple of years ago one of the attendees at our annual Labor Day Wildcat Mountain Rally had a serious issue with his BMW, up from Chicago he was in a bit of a pickle. His bike was towed to 2BP, they provided him a loaner bike, not only allowing him to ride back to Chicago but to finish the rally with us the remainder of the weekend. We all agreed the service was top notch.

Eric and I are inching closer to a plan to run the trail this season and were anxious and willing to learn anything new that we could about the route. Plus, it's always good to gather where other riders meet. Eric rode down and wasn't the only one, I drove.

Not unlike Eric's latest machine, one that he's (we are) anxious to get properly dirtied up.....

This one for Mark and Mike, up on the mezzanine......

Chad getting the projector warmed up...

A few of us present had done part or all of the ride; both Erik and I have covered quite a bit of the southern roads. I learned some new things and Chad's reminder about safety and first aid were well taken. Where and how we go potentially can make the transition from an "uh-oh" to "oh no" a quick and deadly one. Chad's experienced the spectrum.

After some questions and answers, Erik headed first east (a pick-up order of ribs in Sparta) and then home. I see there's a new Facebook photo this morning telling me he didn't stick to the Interstate. The van was telling me that it was 60 degrees outside, a cloudless sky and even driving, rather than riding, on roads that we know so well and visit frequently made for a wonderful drive home, even in a dirty minivan.

And....look what happened on the way home!!!

Driving up the Wisconsin side of the river, open water was everywhere, large chunks of ice breaking off from the south end of Lake Pepin slowly melting and heading south. Large backwater areas were scattered ice fishing quests. I stopped in Old Frontenac to take a couple of photos at this time of transition for the ice fishing folk.

Ice, open water and finally more ice over on the Wisconsin side. It's about 2 1/2 miles across right here.

Sunday

Another lovely day, good enough to get out for a ride, so I did.

Snowmobile trail crossing........

The gravel up top is in pretty nice shape.......

The valleys weren't quite as easy....

I call it pudding. It isn't deep, I think it's the waterous silt as the frost comes out and it's gooey soft. Ridges that would be mere child's play in simple wet summer tracks are challenging when this stuff gets slippery. There were a couple of times today...... I had predicted it on the north facing slopes but anywhere the valleys were hiding accumulated snow, road conditions are in need of more warming.

Here we're experiencing good old fashioned ice, still the slippery kind. It wasn't slush, the tires were leaving no tracks.

Both of us need a bath after today's ride.....

My first time out, after just a couple of miles, felt as easy and smooth as if I'd been out only last weekend. According to the weather folks, winter is due to return by the end of the week and I'm perfectly fine with that. It will be another month for sure before I'm ready to be having this much fun every weekend.

8 comments:

EricFebruary 19, 2017 at 7:18 PM
Doug, I smiled when I received your text "see you at 1:00". Great to have a good chat. Email is good but a good face to face warmed my heart.
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SonjaMFebruary 20, 2017 at 11:48 AM
The surface looks quite treachery. Not something I'd be comfortable riding on. But the old blue seemed to manage just fine, what a beautiful little bike.
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TrobairitzFebruary 21, 2017 at 1:09 PM
I am glad you are getting out and enjoying the warm weather. Fingers crossed you don't get the snow forecast.
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motormikeFebruary 21, 2017 at 7:47 PM
.. that day you inspired .. or " pack my bags go'n on a guilt trip " ... so I went downstairs and awoke the Helix. It's been sitting since late Oct. After it warmed up.. around and around the underground parking.. really not much of a view.. unlike some of my other bikes.. the Helix doesn't set off car alarms.
Then up the ramp and out and about for... 5 minutes... forgot the 2018 lic/plate tabs on the coffee table. But, it was a fun five minutes. No ice cream.. :(
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)